Saturday, July 2, 2016

Our House Build - Loan Docs, Ceiling Fans, Retaining Wall

Last night we (finally) signed off our loan documents! This means that after years of saving and planning, along with a couple of failed attempts to get into the housing market - we're finally confirmed and on the track to our own home - and most importantly - the reason this blog even exists - a home designed by us, for us.

The builders have been very patient with the delays imposed on us by the bank and all the while have been organising things behind the scenes - so much so that they're expecting to begin the retaining wall as soon as Wednesday!

I'm away for training with work the following Thursday and Friday; something that's been on the cards for a few months. If you'd asked me way back when I booked the training, I'd have expected to be past the slab stage by the time I attended it. As it turns out, chances are they will be starting the boring for piers etc and possibly even formwork etc early that week. It'd be just my luck that they'll pour the slab while I'm away and I won't get any photos of the process!

Just this once I'm hoping they don't work too fast!!

Anyway - it looks like we've settled on a ceiling fan (or six) - after thinking I'd decided on Hunter Pacific Intercept 2's, Sarah wanted to know more about them. A bit more research in the process and I came across a number of negative reviews about their build quality (although of course as always with any electronic or physical environment - while not many people post about positive experiences, just about anyone with a negative experience will share it around!)

Anyway, it turns out Sarah can source Mercator fans at a very attractive price - and for a fraction more than the Intercept 2 (which is a fairly basic fan) we are looking like getting the Mercator Eagle DC for all six fans;




These are a 56" (1400mm) 3 blade fan with composite blades, a low consumption (35w on high power) DC motor, remote control, 12W, 4000K, 900 lumen LED light (more on that below) as well as dimming, and 6 speed options.

Intially pricing wise it looked like we'd only be able to justify these for the two fans in the main living / dining areas, however as I mentioned above they're only marginally dearer than the fans we were going to fit throughout the house previously.

Add to that they have much more speed choice and quiet blade design means they're equally well suited to use in the bedrooms. Our intention and thinking is that we're much better off with these units running year round to promote flow of air and avoid using the split system unless necessary to do so - - worst case at 6x35w = 210w vs 3750w when the split system is running.

The lights are good too, being a dimmable LED and fairly bright at full power means they should be flexible enough to do what we want. I'm not 100% certain that the colour temp suits what I wanted (we have some 4000k lights at home and I'm not sold on the idea, 3000k might be more my preference).

I still have to verify exactly what options there are for remote control of the light (read: automation) other than the remote included with the fan - hopefully there's still the ability to use a standard light switch to turn these on and off - if so I can always fit a z-wave switch in-line to control the basic on/off functionality. It's also possible that down the track I could work on some sort of interface between the factory remote control and a z-wave hub of some sort. Time will tell.

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